Device for simultaneously twisting and winding knitted threads



Feb. 25, 1936. HANFF 2,031,707

DEVICE FOR SIMULTANEDUSLY TwIsTING AND WINDINE KNITTED THREADS Filed July 28, 1953 Patented Feb. 25, 1936 UNITED STATES DEVICE FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY TWISTING AND WINDING KNITTED THREADS Ferdinand Hanil, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany, assignor to Sintra A. G. St Gallen (Switzerland), Glarus, Switzerland, a Swiss corporation Application July 28, 1933, Serial No. 682,567 In Germany July 29, 1932 4 Claims.

My invention relates to -a method of manufacturing knitted tubular coverings or knitted threads.

'Ihe object or my invention is to provide a. method whereby the product coming from the knitting head is wound on a bobbin and is additionally twisted about its axis in a 'clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Tothis end, a twisting device which serves to wind the product supplied by the knitting head may be combined with the knitting head. 'I'he winding bobbin of the winding device is preferably constructed in such a manner as to be capable of being raised and lowered.- It need not rotate about its axis, it may remain at rest and be provided with a revolving winding member; for instance, a thread guide which may be movable parallel to the bobbin axis to permit a winding of the thread on the bobbin and which may be controlled by stops. However, it is also possible to employ other known devices for winding the thread on the bobbin. The axis of the twisting device 'coincides preferably with the axis of the knitting head. This expedient is, however, not absolutely necessary. Further details of the invention are disclosed in the embodiments hereinafter described. The invention has the advantage over other tubular yarn knitting machines, particularly over such knitting machines in which the product coming from the knitting head is wound on in the condition in which it comes from the knitting head, that the knitted product, i. e., the knitted thread is twisted in itself, which imparts to the product a greater strength and pleasing color effects in case diierently colored yarns are used for its manufacture. There may be, for instance, colored strips in such a yarn which have a helical form whose pitch may be changed depending upon the rate of the additional twist in clockwise or counter clockwise direction. In this manner it is also possible to arrange the colored lines parallel to the axis of the knitted product.

A further advantage of the additional twist v tangling of the kinks interferes with the continuation of the work. If such a naturally twisted product coming from the knitting head is twisted in the aforedescribed manner about its axis in the opposite direction to the natural twist direction, the detrimental twist may bc in this manner eliminated in the knitted product.

In the accompanying drawing some embodiments of my invention are illustrated diagrammaticallv, and in which 1 bobbin,

Fig. 3 shows a plurality of knitting heads feeding into a common twisting device for doubling 10 purposes, and

Fig. 4 shows in sectional elevation and in larger scale the spindle 21, and the back gearing by which it is operated.

In theembodiment shown in Fig. l an ordi- 15 nary spun thread 2 is supplied from the supply bobbin I and is knitted in the knitting head 3 into knitted thread 4 which is further conveyed by a take-up device, for instance, a pair of rollers 5. 'I'he knitted thread passes through a guide eye I 20 and is wound on a winding device. The winding device 'consists of a vertical spindle I driven by a pulley 8 with the aid of a belt 9 and of a wharve IB. The knitted thread is wound on the spindle 'I in cop form, for which purpose well-known de- 25 vices may be employed, for instance, a so-called ring spinner. The latter consists substantially of a traveller ring II and a traveller I2 through which the knitted thread 4 passes. A driving pulley I3 and a rope I 4 drives the knitting cyl- 30 inder. The invention is not limited to the embodiment shown. Other winding devices than those employed in ring spinning frames; for instance, those employed in twisting frames, yer spinning frames, cap spinning frames and pot spinning frames may also be used. In particular cases the take-up rollers 5 may be omitted, provided that a suiciently strong pull is exerted by the winding device on the knitted thread 4 delivered by the knitting head 3.

Another embodiment of a winding device is shown in Fig. 2 which shows diagrammatically only the arrangement of the winding device without the knitting head, since the knitting liead may be of any suitable design suchas that shown in Fig. 1. The thread 2Il delivered by the knitting head is wound on a bobbin 2l which is fixed to an axle 22 with the aid of a nut 38. Axle 22 is supported in the base 23 and held by a set screw 24. The bobbin is, therefore, stationary. A disc 26 rotatably mounted on axle 22 carries on;l its periphery a vertical thread guide post 30 which is bent at its upper end lll! over the bobbin 2|, so that its thread guide orifice 3I is brought into alinement with the bobbin axis. vertical portion 30 of this guide post is rotatably mounted a. left and right hand threaded tubular spindle 2l on which traverses a guide nut 28 provided with a thread guide 29. Spindle 2l is oper'ated from a star wheel 35 by'a back gearing 00 On the straight shown in detail in Fig. 4 in larger scale. It will be noted from this figure that the guide post 30 previously mentioned is held on rotating disc by means oi a nut 3&2 which is tightened against the underside of disc 26. Guide post extends downwardly beyond this nut to form a stud 3i?! which carries a hollow shaft 273 on the inner end of which is mounted pinion l275, and on the outer end star wheel so'that pinion 275 is rotated by this star wheel. The lower end of spindle 7 carries a pinion 27|. Near the outer periphery of disc 26 is journalled a jack shaft 273 to one end of which is iixed a pinion 2M in mesh with pinion 275, and on the other end of the shaft is fixed a pinion 272 in mesh with pinionv2`l'l. Thus, when star wheel 35 is rotated its rotation is transmitted through jack shaft 273 to the spindle 27. This arrangement represents a conventional back gearing which per se forms no part of the present invention. This gearing is surrounded by a casing 277 which is shown in Fig. 2. The arms vof star wheel 35 abut against the fixed detent 37 in Fig. 2, one arm at each revolution of disc 25, when the latter is driven from shaft 34 through cord drive 33 and wharve 32. In this manner the knitted thread 2li is wound by rotating disc 26 onto stationary bobbin 2 i, travelling thread guide 28 taking care of guiding the thread'up and down the bobbin as indicated by the double headed arrow in Fig. 2.

Such a winding device has the advantage'that bobbins which have a large capacity may be employed'and that only the thread guides are ro- Betweenv tionally by long driving cylinders, the so-calledA Swifts, common to all individual devices. AHowever, they may also be provided with an individual drive. This feature is common in the textile art and forms no part of the present invention, and

` its illustration is therefore omitted.

In this manner it'is possible to manufacture with the aid of such individual device as shown in Figs, l and 2, a simple knitted thread which consists only of one single knitted strand with the desired amount of twist.r If, as shown in Fig. 3, knitted strands are supplied from several knitting heads and are brought together `and fed toa single common twisting device such as is shown in Fig. 2, a correspondingly thicker doubled or tripled knitted thread consisting of a number of individual, for instance three, knitted strands is then obtained.

A particular advantage of the threads made according to the invention also resides inthe feature that novel patterns may be produced by the use of different colors. The novel patterns are a combination of knitted and twisted patterns pattern consisting of individual knitted patterns may be manufactured.

If the knitting machine operates with rotating knitting cylinder, i. e., with a` rotating needle bed, as shown for instance in the patent to Meiwald No. 1,947,302, the winding device need not any longer rotate together with the needle cylinder. By changing the speed of the knitting cylinder the pitch according to which the knitted thread is wound may be varied. The rate of change is very great, since the movement of the knitting cylinder may either lead or lag with respect to the winding bobbin and the difference betweenv the leading and the lagging may assume great values. i

The present invention, which may also consist in the combination of a knitting machine with a twisting frame has, consequently, not only advantages in regard to the mechanical construction of the machine but also to the strength of the product and the effect of the patterns. If the invention is applied in conjunction with the modern construction of knitting heads and doubling frames, an extremely efficient output of knitted threads for textile purposes may be obtained.-

I claim as my invention:

l. In a knitting machine for the manufacture of knitted threads, a knitting head for producing the `knitted thread, a take-up device for drawing the knitted thread from said knitting head, a twisting device for said thread and a bobbin for receiving the thread, said twisting device being disposed beyond said take-up device and having means for winding the knitted thread upon said bobbin and for rotating it about its axis during.

the winding, the rotary axis of said twisting device'coinciding with the axis of said knitting head.

2. In a knitting machine for the manufacture of. knitted threads, a knitting head for productng the knitted thread, a take-up device for drawing the thread from said knitting head, a twisting device for said knitted thread containing a bobbin for receiving the thread, and having rotatable means for winding the thread upon the bobbin, and for rotating it about its axis during the winding, the axis of said twisting device coinciding with the axis of said bobbin, said winding means including a rotatable reverse thread screw disposed in parallel to the bobbin axis, a knitted thread guide travelling on said reverse screw, and a star wheel for rotating said reverse screw, and a nxed detent disposed in the path oi said star wheel for operating thelatter one step.

.at each rotation of the winding means, for guiding the knitted thread up and down the bobbin.

3. In a knitting machine for the manufacture of knitted threads, a plurality of knitting heads `for producing a plurality of knitted threads, a single twisting device arranged to receive the knitted threads from all of said knitting heads, said twisting device including a bobbin for receiving said threads and means for twisting said threads about one another while they are Wound upon said bobbin.

4. Ina knitting machine for the manufacture of knitted threads, a knitting head for producing the knitted thread, a take-up device to draw the thread from said knitting head, and a twisting device disposed beyond the take-up device for twisting the knitted thread about its axis.

" FERDINAND HANFF. 

